Openings: Ed's Lobster Shack & East Village Ice Cream

From DailyCandy:

Ed’s Lobster Bar

"There’s a good chance that the menu in heaven looks something like this: lobster roll, lobster pot pie, grilled lobster, and — aw, what the heck — another lobster roll.

Paradise gets a step closer tomorrow when Ed’s Lobster Bar opens in SoHo.

Ed McFarland, longtime cook at Pearl Oyster Bar, is now going it on his own. And not a moment too soon: The east side has been itching for a proper seafood shack.

Ed’s is charming and unpretentious: long dining bar, a dozen tables in the back, gray wainscoting, and oceanic scenes on the walls. A fitting home for the simple, magnificent crustacean.

Right. About the lobster-rific menu. It includes all the heavenly wishes and a raw bar, clam chowder, steamers, PEI mussels, seared scallops, and New York bouillabaisse. And just about everything falls between $10 and $20.

Yes, pinch yourself. No, you’re not dreaming."

222 Lafayette Street, between Spring and Broome Streets (212-343-3236)


East Village Ice Cream

"There are really only two kinds of people (lunatics, geniuses) who would dare open an ice cream shop in the dead of winter.

But East Village Ice Cream, a bite-size, creamsicle-colored store just opened by a Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory alum, is a case of mad brilliance.

Everything in the tiny gem of a shop is handcrafted in carefully curated, ever-changing flavors: mango made from fresh fruit and brown sugar; pistachio with bits of toasted, hand-mashed nuts; and sweet, rich coffee that revives better than any cup of joe. Calculate the beneficial effects of vanilla with caramel or strawberry with rainbow sprinkles on your seasonal affective disorder.

Before you know it, you’ll be scarfing down amazing Scharffen Berger chocolate-chocolate chunk in zero-degree weather, wondering whether you are a lunatic or a genius.

Or a little of both."

218 Avenue B, between 13th and 14th Streets (212-673-6030)